A Mentions Hearing will be held for Donald Cornell, who is facing six charges over alleged abuse dating back to the late 1980s. Cornell, who is not Jewish, was apparently contracted as a bus driver for both the fervently Orthodox Adass Israel School and the Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne.
Originally published at 10:48 pm CDT 4-24-2013
Tzedek writes:
A former bus driver for Melbourne’s [haredi] Adass Israel School will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday over charges stemming from the ongoing investigation into child sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
A Mentions Hearing will be held for Donald Cornell, who is facing six charges over alleged abuse dating back to the late 1980s.
Cornell, who is not Jewish, was apparently contracted as a bus driver for both the fervently Orthodox Adass Israel School and the [Chabad] Yeshivah Centre in Melbourne.
Tzedek, an organisation established to advocate for Jewish victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, is urging anyone with any information about child sexual abuse to contact the police.
Tzedek founder and CEO Manny Waks said: “We commend the brave victim for taking steps to ensure that justice is achieved and to protect other children, and hope it will give other victims the strength to come forward. In all current cases I am aware of in the Jewish community, there have been multiple victims. We are therefore concerned there may be further victims in this case.
Of additional concern is the serious allegation that these institutions continued to contract Cornell, even after they were advised of his alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’.”
The Hearing is scheduled for this Friday, 26 April from 9.30am in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, and is being prosecuted by Senior-Constable Jennifer Horgan from Victoria Police.
Update 6-9-2014 – The case against Cornell has been dropped, and police were apparently ordered to pay Cornell's court costs. Cornell was allegedly beaten up sometime after being charged (perhaps by members of the Adass community, although this is not clear) and apparently suffered a brain injury that left him unable to stand trial, a source in Melbourne told FailedMessiah.com.